Getaway

A few weeks ago my friend Kristen had the brilliant idea of taking a day trip somewhere. Though no two days are ever quite the same when you're a mom, there's still monotony in the daily dressing, feeding, and cleaning that goes on. We agreed a getaway was just what we needed, so we loaded up the kids and drove to Leavenworth for the day. It was about as perfect as a day can get for Danny.

He had a best buddy, dagger, and nonstop movies on the two hour drive.

There were tons of fun shops with interesting things to look at like "cowboy" hats, rifles,

electric guitars. . . oh wait. Just another gun.
a Medusa hat, and a scuba hat which Danny insisted was a "knight" hat.We ate a perfect lunch of bratwurst and lemonade supplemented by goldfish crackers, fruit snacks, pretzels, ice cream, grapes, carrot sticks, and a gumball that was bigger than Danny's mouth. Life doesn't get much better for a 3-year-old.
And then, to top off Danny's perfect day we went to Smallwood Farm to run around, pet the animals, and play.He even got to try out a real lasso. What a great day for Danny!

Kaylee couldn't have been better herself. She napped and ate when we needed her to and she didn't fuss at all until we were almost home. Most of the day she was nothing but smiles.

As for me, I returned home feeling rejuvinated. There's nothing like a getaway with good food, good conversation, and a good friend to help you re-energize. Thanks for a fantastic trip Hamburger Head (aka Kristen).


If you could go anywhere for a day, where would you go?

Bottle of Laughter

I've always wished I could bottle up this perfect sound. Then I could carry it around in my pocket and anytime I was feeling blue I would just open it up and listen to this contagious laughter. It brings a smile to my face every time I hear it. What sound or image does the same for you?

Orange and Pink

Missing All Y'all

A few weekends ago we were able to take a quick trip to Houston using unused plane tickets from Christmas. It was wonderful to see friends and family that we've missed TONS! We had fun playing games, eating out, shopping, and making a day trip out to the countryside to enjoy the Blue Bonnets. Here are a few lists and pictures to summarize.

Top 5 things we have not missed since moving:
1. Long, long, long commute
2. 90% humidity . . . almost every day
3. Living in a gated community with gates that don't work and massive speed bumps
4. Hurricanes
5. Fire Ants

Top 5 things I didn't know I would miss, but really have:
1. Flip flops and capris every day (It's April and I'm still wearing sweaters here!!)
2. Chic-Fil-A, Kohl's, Wal-Mart, & Ross only 2 minutes away (Thanks for some fun shopping trips Anne & Mindy)
3. Having 6 good friends in the neighborhood who could lend you an egg or an onion so you don't have to load up the kids and drive 10 minutes to Albertsons.
4. Huge, bright, sunny skies

5. Texas Pride (I have yet to hear the Washington State Pledge or even see a Washington State flag . . . Nor have I heard Deep in the Heart of Washington on the radio. Where's the love??)

Top 5 things I knew I'd miss and still do:
1. Spring Ward Family - Love you guys tons!
2. Having my sister practically next door.

3. Cousins .

4. Best Friends
5. Blue Bell Ice Cream

We sure do miss all y'all!

Robin in the Rain

We do get quite a bit of rain here in Seattle, but the locals don't mind a bit.

Spring Holiday Highlights

I'm not sure where the last few weeks have gone, but somehow I've felt too busy to blog. We've had a lot of fun celebrating, especially since we have officially sold our old house. $ is in the bank and we're THRILLED to no longer have double the bills. Here are some highlights of the last month of celebration.
Video warning - these are long and not that cute, but I thought the grandparents would enjoy them.

St. Patrick's Day Feast -
corned beef, red potatoes, cabbage, beer (root that is),
green and white parfaits, and golden chocolates
I caught a leprechaun!

The week leading up to Easter, we had an egg hunt with our friends at the park.

We made chick eggs to send to our family.

We laughed and danced to Grandma Hong's bunny surprise.

And we had a family night with the Resurrection Eggs
to reteach and remember the story of Easter. We hid these on Easter as well and then retold the story at Easter breakfast. I'm excited to make this part of our Easter tradition.

Easter weekend was spent in Richland with my parents and brother.

Decorating eggs is serious business here. Notice the orange pirate Grandma did for Danny.

Kaylee had fun hunting for eggs and trying to eat them.

She also was an excellent guard baby . . . making sure the dogs stayed in their place during the egg hunt and didn't steal any chocolates.
Grandma made a beautiful coconut bunny cake and of course we had the traditional ham, asparagus, orange jello, and deviled egg chicks.

It was a relaxing weekend. I love when General Conference and Easter coincide because I feel like so many of the talks focus on the Savior and help me better understand the Atonement and Resurrection.

And just in case you didn't think the first bunny video was sufficient, here's one more.

Ramblings on real estate . . .

I've decided being a first time home buyer is FAR easier than the current state we are in. My family moved nearly every two years growing up, so I just assumed selling and buying houses was no big deal. Ha! This domino effect is MADDENING!

We've looked at purchasing houses here, but can't buy until we sell our old house. (The old house that flooded and was off the market for 6 weeks). We can't sell our old house until all the ducks are in a row with the buyer. Though we accepted an offer over a month ago (not a great one I might add), there was further complications after the home inspection.

Home Inspector - "Your roof has extensive hail damage. You need a new roof."
Us - "That seems suspicious as we've been living there with NO problem, but we'll have our insurance come take a look at it."
Insurance - "Your roof looks fine. No problem at all."
Us - "Hmmm . . . ."
So the realtor kindly offered to get another opinion.
Realtor's Roofer - "Yep. There is some hail damage."
Insurance - "Looks fine. We won't pay a cent."
Realtor - "Maybe you can just dock the price a little more while you look into insurance fixing the roof."
Us (grumbling) - "Fine. We just want to be done with this."

And then today, after the insurance and roofer connected to try to see what was really going on we get this phonecall.

Realtor's Roofer - "Funny thing. There is another house with the same address as yours in a different subdivision. I was looking at the wrong house. Your roof looks in pristine condition."

This call after we'd signed papers to lower the price again. Grumble, grumble, grumble.

So maybe our old house will finally sell and then we can buy a house here. The race is on to get in a contract before the end of April so we can take advantage of the tax break for upgrading your home. Ironic since most of the houses we've been looking at in this market were built in 1950 and have less than 1700 sf, which probably won't feel like an upgrade. I remind myself of these upgrades instead - mountains, Puget Sound, Seattle, being closer to a lot of extended family, short commute, fantastic rental house, and being together as a family. As challenging as its been to sell a house from thousands of miles away, it would be even harder to have Matt commuting to Seattle every week while the kids and I stayed back in Houston.

Maybe in a year we'll be able to laugh about this. . . . unless our house still hasn't sold. :)

Just another sunny day in Seattle

When we told people we were moving to Seattle, the immediate reaction was, "Hope you like the rain." Though Houston actually has more rainfall per year, Seattle is known for it's endless gray days. Either it's been a very mild winter, or the sunny days have made up for the rainy ones. I still can't get enough of the mountains and water. Hopefully now that I've been away from it for so long I'll never take it for granted again.

Mt. Rainier (or as Danny likes to call it, Dragon Mountain)

Likening the Scriptures

Danny is obsessed with weapons at the moment (I say moment with hopes that this phase will eventually pass). Not too long ago we were going over to a new friend's house for the first time. Danny walked in, looked around, and said, "Where are your weapons?"

Though I started parenthood with intentions of having a peaceful, weapon-free home, I have failed miserably. Danny has swords, light sabers, squirt guns, pirate hooks, bubble guns, and a bow and arrow. I gave in when I realized that even if I wasn't providing any weapons, Danny would be creating them himself. Sticks, legos, straws, serving spoons, and even foam letters and states (particularly the letter L and Idaho) have excellent potential for becoming weapons.

So in an effort to ease my guilt about Danny's obsession with weapons, and perhaps redirect some of the energy into meaningful experiences, we've been reading about weapons in the scriptures. Danny was THRILLED when his first edition of The Friend had the following activity.

Captain Moroni

Anytime I ask him to choose a story, he wants to read his scriptures so he can read about swords, shields, spears, and battles. Sometimes I ask myself, am I really teaching the gospel here, or just encouraging an unhealthy obsession? We can only hope this early study and passion for the scriptures will make him an excellent missionary someday . . . unless he's still carrying a sword around everywhere he goes.

Feed the Birds

What is it about feeding birds that is so entertaining? Whether it's pigeons on St. Mark's Square in Venice, macaws on the beach in Cozumel, or seagulls outside Ivar's in Seattle I just love it.






I'm glad Danny and Kaylee have just as much fun with it as I do. Sadly, though for a good reason, most parks in the area do not allow you to feed the ducks. Luckily Ivar's, swarming with hungry seagulls, is just a short drive away. What is your favorite memory of feeding birds?

Dinos, dinos, dinos

There has been a lot of paleontology enthusiasm at our house lately. Danny got a dinosaur egg in his Valentine's bag. We put the egg in water and checked on it daily (usually hourly). After 4 days it had almost completely hatched when Dozer knocked the "incubator" on the ground. The plastic dinosaur survived. The glass bowl did not. Danny was also thrilled that there was a T-Rex at the Cougar Mountain Zoo. Although it was not a living, breathing T-Rex (since we all know those are hard to come by), Danny was still able to take some lessons from it about how to be a fierce dinosaur.
Finally, we have recently had some dinosaur sightings at our house. Beware of the
curlersaurus and pigtailadon.